Visions from a Goddess
by Nights-into-dreams
Summary: Ajido Marujido happens upon the Star Sibyl trying to descern the future of Windurst...and finds his worst nightmare might just come true.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, another FFXI fan fiction. Who knew that I would actually be able to keep writing these? I certainly didn't. This story I wrote on my spring break, while I was supposed to be editing another story of mine that I will be putting up here shortly.

This story takes place shortly before the Rank one missions for Windurst, literally right before your character meets Ajido-Marujido, and helps to set up the story for his...slightly...erratic behavior.

Okay, first of all, legal stuff. I don?t own the Star Sibyl, Ajido-Marujido, or mithras. They are all property of Squarenix, so don't sue...I'm a White Mage for crying out loud, I don't HAVE any gil, lol.

Please, read and review! I live off of the public's wishes and thoughts, so the more people reply, the more I write

Oh, special thanks here to Pikko of "Pikko's Pots". Thank you for helping me figure out this tarutaru dialect, and correcting me where I went wrong on it. This story wouldn?t have gotten as far as it did without you.

And lastly, I am dedicating this story to Rhia. My dear, I still stand by the statement you should have been a Tarutaru. You certainly act like one.

* * *

_Visions from a Goddess_

* * *

I trudged up the stairs, to see Her standing there, slightly slumped over the fountain, her hands gripping its sides loosely on either side of her.

"Hello-wello, Star Sibyl..."

She seemed to not be startled at my presence, for She slowly turned to look at me to see who I was, then turns away to fix Her gaze into the deepening, rippling waters of the fountain once more.

"Ajido-Marujido..." She spoke those words with a hoarse, tired voice. "Whataru doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on official Ministry business to Jeuno rightaru now?"

With a slight movement, I nod and then take a few steps closer to Her. "Yes, my lady, I suppose I am. However, I am supposed to worry about you firstaru, before anything else." I let a slight caring smile play across my lips as I say this, for _technically_, watching over Her was outside of my assigned duties.

Gracefully, I pull my willow wand out from beneath my tattered robes, and wave it once in the air in a quick fluid motion. Its arc through the air leaves behind a golden trail and out of that pops out a small silver tray laden with a medium-sized helping of red curry and a frosted glass of Selbinan milk into my hands. My sandals gently slapping the cold stone floor, I walk up to the diviner and nudge her with the tray's edge.

"My lady...please eat. Just because you are the descendantaru of the Goddess doesn'taru mean you don'taru need food."

She turns to me, and it is then that I can see that She was tired. There were twin black circles surrounding Her eyes, and a slight quiver that seemed to track along Her entire body. Her lips were cracked, and a pale pink tongue licked those lips quickly and hungrily when She saw what I had summoned up for Her.

She slowly reaches her hand as if to grab the glass of milk after a moment, but instead pushes it all away gently from her.

"No thanks...I mustn'taru eat until I can see whataru I feel like I need to see..." She then turned away from me once more to look into the pool of water, locking her fingers together behind her back.

Her words peaked some sense of curiosity within me.

_What could She want to see, desperately enough to forgo sleep, food, and everything else?_

_The Crystal War that happened years ago is over, ended by the one true hero of Windust._

"...Is something wrong?"

The words were formed on my lips and set forth without my bidding, and immediately a sense of fear washed over me. One does not ask the Reincarnation of the Goddess of the Dawn about what She might see in the prophecy waters.

That knowledge is Hers and Hers alone, to be shared with everyone else when She sees it to be fit.

She didn't turn away from the fountain.

"Arujido-Marujido...what do you think I can see in this fountain?"

Her question took me aback slightly and stunned me.

How does one without the true Sight reply to such a question?

"Well...I suppose that you can see the future in itaru, what is to be."

She carefully nods Her head a couple of times in agreement.

"Yes...and no. Within this fountain, I can see the future yes, but not the definitaru future. Instead, I see differentaru versions of the future, of whataru can happen if such and such eventaru occurs, or if such and such person says one thing versus another. The predictions I give you all at the Ministry meeting held every year is made up of the version of the future that, no matter what anyone does, will happen."

She unlocked Her fingers from behind Her, and gingerly placed them together on the edge of the fountain in front of her. I see Her shoulders sag and Her body seem like it suddenly grew 20 years older as She sighs deeply.

"The other nightaru...for the first time in so long, I saw a reoccurring visionwision of destruction. The kind of destruction not seen since that huge monsterwonster terrorized Windurst during the war. It frightened me, and since then I have been here, trying to see backwards from that eventaru, to see what led up to it..."

My eyes went wide at this proclamation.

_The war...occurring again?_

_Impossible, the Shadowlord was slain, and the Hero of Windurst had saved us all. My own father helped to place the seals that made sure that the Shadowlord couldn't come back to life throughout Vana'diel_.

"B-but the Book of the Gods...the words aren't erased, as it is said in legend to happen when the evil rises again." I spoke these words with a half-truth in mind, not wanting to believe what my lady had said.

"That is true...", She allowed me, "which means that future is not set in stone yetaru."

She finally turned away from the fountain for a last time, and stepped a bit crookedly closer to me.

"Arujido, whataru thinking of the peace that we have with the Yagudo?"

Immediately without thinking, I instantly replied: "I don'taru trust them."

With that, She wrapped Her arms around my neck, and then fell and collapsed from exhaustion onto me. I almost stumble and fall under Her weight, but I somehow I manage to hold Her up.

"I know, neither do I...but yet I feel like we mustaru keep the peace with them. I don'taru feel really-weally comfortable with them being allowed to exist so close to Windurst's gates, nor do I feel secure feeding them and arming them with the tools they have been using to attack our citizens."

She whispered those words drowsily into the robes covering my bare chest, as She tried to fight back sleep.

"Yet...I have to keep the peace. I don'taru want to see what happened twenty years ago happen again. This time, there won'taru be a Mastermind of the Millennium to protectaru us...," She started to softly ramble over and over again, babbling until she finally trailed off.

Her eyes close all of the way, and I slowly realize that She had fallen asleep clinging to me. Quietly, and carefully enough so that I might not wake Her, I pull out my wand. I point it straight up in the air, and out of its tip issues out a small shower of red lightning sparks in a pattern.

Instantly, one of Her mithra guards come to me and chuckles wordlessly when she sees what had happened to the Star Sibyl. Without a word, the mithra disentangles the reincarnation of the Goddess from me, and cradles her gently into her arms. The mithra then turns around, and with a slight wave passing through her white robes, she gently carries Her off to Her chambers at the top of the tower.

Even as I watch Her be carried off though...Her words stuck behind with me.

_Could what She said be true?_

It certainly seems inconceivable, almost impossible. The seal my father placed to keep the Shadowlord from ever being resurrected seemed to be in place and working perfectly when I had visited that place in the Ruins two, three days ago.

On impulse, I stroll over to the fountain that the prophet had been staring into so long, in a faint hope that I could see what She saw.

Instead of visions of the future, all I see is dark water swirling around, lapping up against the fountain's stone sides.

Shaking my head slightly, I start to tread down the stairs back to the tower's enterance.

_How could I possibly expect to see what She Herself was having trouble seeing?..._

_I guess that I will have to await to see what will happen...just like everyone else._

_-fin_


End file.
